Golf is an outdoor sport played on a green course with golf holes, each of which have a starting and an ending point. Whoever can put the ball into the cup of each hole in the least amount of strokes, and thereby get the lowest scores, wins. A typical golf course has eighteen holes where par (number of strokes a golfer is expecteduy to need to complete all the holes) is 72 strokes. The golfer is allowed to use a maximum of 14 golf clubs typically consisting of Irons, Woods and a Putter . . . .Out of these 14 clubs, the putter is the most frequently used club and also the most important. In a typical round of golf, the putter is used as many as about 28 to 36 time. Therefore, to be able to putt well is an advantage to achieving a low score.
Although the distance to be covered in putting is far less than that covered by the other clubs, putting also requires a great deal accuracy in order to execute the putt successfully. Therefore, to facilitate putting, many a different kinds of putters have been invented.
Putters generally come in three different types of club heads (traditional blade, a heel-toe or a mallet) and three different lengths (standard, belly putters and long putters).
It has been found that the more easily the body joints of the golfer can be bent or twisted, the more degrees of freedom the golfer has while putting. It might give more flexibility but can result in inconsistent putts. A common error seen during putting is that the golfer may wrongly bend his wrists which will result in loss of direction and this is called “yips” (uncontrollable motions).
Most standard putters have a 32″-35″ long shaft, which gives six degrees of freedom to the golfer: hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, waist and knees. A belly putter is usually 6-8 inches longer than a normal putter and is placed against the stomach. The conventional putter requires proper co-ordination between hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders. The long putter is longer than the belly putter and is placed against the chin or chest and reduces the importance of the hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders. The putt is better controlled with the long putter but the use of it in professional tournament is currently debated on.
While putting with a standard putter conventionally the golfer grips the top of the shaft of his putter and swings it along a line that will create the pendulum movement which causes the ball to move into the hole. In another method of putting, he grips the shaft with one hand and grips the arm with the other hand. But in both these methods, the muscles of the wrists and hands are used to execute the pendulum movement; non-coordination of these muscles can result in “yips”
Again, while putting with a putter longer than the standard putter, since the design reduces the importance of hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders, it consequently results in lesser control over putting power and feel. The long putter is gripped with one hand at the top of the shaft and the other at the middle. The putter is held in a vertical position, the club head being perpendicular to the ground and aligned to the ball. The putter is then swung along a predetermined line to achieve a pendulum swing and cause the ball to fall into the hole. Again, the demerit of using the known technique of putting is that the muscles of the wrists and hands are at play and it result in less control over the putter and there is a possibility of involuntary movements (yips).
Therefore, both methods of putting, using a standard putter or a longer putter, have the disadvantage of employing the wrists and hands resulting in inaccuracy and inconsistent putting performance.
There have been several techniques discussed in golf to hold the wrists steady during putting, so that they don't succumb to involuntary movements. Modified gripping had been designed where the bottom of the grip is held with the left hand, and the right hand is separated from the left hand and holds the shaft against the left forearm. But in the modified way of gripping, the golfer has to bend over more than he does while using a standard putter. The golfers often complain of a lack of “feel” when using above technique.
The above techniques relate to the traditional and modified techniques of gripping to steady the involuntary movements of the wrists and hands while putting. When it comes to the methods of putting, there are two general methods of putting. In the traditional method of putting, the player grips the putter with both the hands, takes a stance in such a way that the imaginary line passing through the two toes is perpendicular to the line of putt whereas with the new putter the player grips the putter with one hand only and facing the hole, takes a stance in such a way that the imaginary line passing through the toes is perpendicular to the line of putt.
In employing the traditional method of putting, there appears to be three major disadvantages:    First, the method involves two hands and it requires a great amount of training to coordinate the muscles of two hands perfectly because a minor muscle in-coordination can result in a missed putt.    Second, the putter head normally swings in an arc around the putter's spine. Therefore, to make the ball travel in a straight line, the ball must be struck at a precise point in that arc which can make it travel in the intended straight line. To overcome this problem, many players prevent spine rotation and achieve the pendulum swing with the movements of and shoulders only    Third, and the biggest problem, the golfer cannot see the hole during the stroke. He looks at the hole, memorizes its position, and then focuses his attention to the putter-head and the ball. Also, since the golfer is positioned perpendicular to the intended line, his head is turned sideways while looking at the hole. In the sideway glance, one eye is above the other eye, hence his vision is contorted as he perceives the target to be further right than it actually is.
In employing the second method of putting while facing the hole, there are prior arts that have been successful in complying with the golf rules and constructing a putter. The prior art patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,240,636, 4,163,554, 3,679,207 and 6,152,832. Out of these four patents, the first three employs both hands on the putter while facing the hole. These patents could not eliminate the disadvantages of the traditional method. The fourth patent, US'832, by Chandler, was a one-handed method which successfully solved the arc-travel problem of the prior patents. But there were alignment difficulties experienced while using Chandler's putter because the putter face is directly below the golfer's shoulder.
Therefore, there exists a need to have a putter that eliminates the difficulties faced by the existing putting methods and makes it easier for the golfer to make alignment assessments, and improves putting by eliminating the errors involved.